American officials, regional leaders and residents are increasingly worried that this northern oil-rich city could develop into a third front in the country’s civil war just as additional US troops arrive in Baghdad and Al Anbar province as reinforcements for battles there. Al Qaeda-linked fighters recently have surfaced here, launching a wave of lethal attacks, US and Iraqi officials say. The attacks come amid a rise in communal tensions in the months before a referendum on the status of the city and the surrounding province.Elsewhere in Iraq, Shiite and Sunni Arab Muslims are locked in a bitter civil war. Here, the two groups have a common cause against the Kurds, a non-Arab minority that dominates Iraq’s far-northern provinces.The Kurds, Arabs and Turkmens, another minority group, each want control of this city and the region. At stake are land, water and some of Iraq’s richest oil reserves. ... http://www.ft.com

A fight to discourage Hooters restaurant from expanding in this well-to-do Detroit suburb by blocking its liquor license has backfired: Now there are two restaurants just two miles apart. Troy, a high-income city of just 80,000 people and home to the state’s only Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue department stores, now has another distinction. It is the only non-resort city of its size to have two Hooters. “You come directly off the interstate and that’s the first thing you come to,” said Wade Fleming, a councilman who voted in June to reject the transfer of a liquor license to the new Hooters restaurant from a rundown tavern that once operated at the same location. “That starts to define Troy, I think, and that’s not how we’d like to define Troy.” Hooters executives want just one restaurant in Troy, but the company won’t close the old one until it’s allowed to serve alcohol at the new restaurant, which opened Monday on a larger, more visible site....http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16932541/

A report from the Congressional Budget Office says President Bush's plan for a troop increase in Iraq could cost up to $27 billion for a 12-month deployment.The plan could mean sending thousands of support troops in addition to the 20,000-plus combat troops the Defense Department has set for deployment.The numbers come in a letter to Rep. John Spratt, chairman of the House Budget Committee, in response to a request from Spratt's office."CBO's report concludes that the cost of the president's plan to 'surge' troops will be higher than previously indicated, both in dollar terms and in the burdens it places on our military," Spratt, D-South Carolina, said in a written statement....http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/02/01/iraq.surge/index.html?eref=rss_us

Five people were killed and 10 injured Thursday in a fiery chain-reaction crash that destroyed more than a dozen vehicles, as a blizzard that reduced visibility to near zero, officials said.Gordon Glibbery, site commander for Northumberland Emergency Medical Services, said a from the scene about 60 miles east of Toronto that five people were confirmed dead.He said it appeared that the accident began with two semi trucks and some smaller vehicles. "The tanker truck, in an attempt to evade the accident, itself got into an accident and exploded."Officials at Northumberland Hills Hospital in Cobourg said 10 people were admitted with injuries — three serious, one critical and six minor.The crash occurred during a blizzard that likely reduced visibility to zero and made the road surface treacherous, said Geoff Coulson, an Environment Canada meteorologist...http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-02-01-crash-canada_x.htm?csp=34

Tony Blair has been questioned about the allegations of perverting the course of justice that have been levelled at two of his senior aides, The Times learnt last night. The police imposed a news blackout on the Prime Minister’s second interview, which took place last Friday. It was disclosed by Downing Street yesterday, two days after Lord Levy, Mr Blair’s fundraiser, was arrested for a second time on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. As police refused to say why they had demanded secrecy there was speculation last night that they had not wanted Lord Levy to know of the line of questioning taken with Mr Blair. Ruth Turner, the director of government relations, was the other aide arrested in connection with an alleged cover-up at No 10. ...http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2580263,00.html

Nearly half the members of Australia's Parliament signed a letter to the U.S. Congress appealing for help repatriating the lone Australian terror suspect held at the Guantanamo Bay, officials said Friday. The letter asking for Congress to ensure that David Hicks is not tried by a military commission at the U.S. naval base in Cuba was signed by 96 senators and members of the Australian House of Representatives, opposition parties said. There are a total of 226 members in Parliament. "As members of the Australian Parliament, we believe that the denial of justice in David Hicks' case erodes the values and principles shared by Australia and the United States," Lyn Allison, leader of the Australian Democrats minor opposition party, said in a statement. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2843329